LOWELL -- In a crowded Democratic primary field in the race for the 6th Congressional District, Marisa DeFranco is one of four candidates hoping to gain traction to unseat nine-term incumbent Rep. John Tierney.

Unlike the four men in the field, she said she has the experience fighting for women's rights and defending minorities in her legal practice that sets her apart from her competitors.

"That's fine if you don't have the experience, but what I find interesting is when men candidates talk a lot about supporting women, but I haven't seen them actually fighting for women in the last 20 years I've been doing it," DeFranco said.

DeFranco, a lawyer from Middleton, is facing an uphill battle in the race for the 6th District.

Congressional hopeful Marisa DeFranco, who is among the challengers to incumbent U.S. Rep. John Tierney, speaks with Jerimiah Forsythe of Wilmington as she greets afternoon commuters at the Wilmington MBTA commuter rail station on Tuesday.
SUN/Julia Malakie

In March, she was excluded from a poll by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which placed Tierney at 64 percent of the vote and former U.S. Marine veteran Seth Moulton at 17 percent. An Emerson College poll from April had DeFranco and Moulton tied at 10 percent of the vote each, compared to Tierney's 64 percent.

In June, when U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a "When Women Succeed, America Succeeds" event in Lowell, DeFranco wasn't mentioned even though she attended as a female candidate. Tierney was, however.

Asked at the time about the possible snub, DeFranco said it is ironic that Democrats criticize Republicans for a "so-called war on women" yet act much the same when it suits the purpose.

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"When I go to Washington, I look forward to working on solutions with both men and women and with Democrats and Republicans, because that's the way it should be," DeFranco told The Sun.

DeFranco said she's optimistic that her work, particularly on women's rights and as an immigration lawyer, will help her stand out with less than two weeks to go before the Sept. 9 primary.

"I set out on this task, this endeavor, to tell people what my ideas are, coming form a perspective of I've lived through this myself. I've lived through the small business experience, I've lived through immigration, I've lived through being a woman, and these are the things that I think are wrong with Congress and the country and how Congress is not getting the job done," DeFranco said.

Although she lags far behind both Tierney and Moulton in fundraising, she said she's confident about her standing in the race.

"I have this great network of support, I have people on the ground, I have some amazing staff and volunteers canvassing and making the connections to people who actually work in the communities," she added. "And that's sort of my secret weapon that the other guys don't have, because I've actually been working on Main Streets in the district talking to real people day in and day out."

Despite her optimism, DeFranco's campaign has yet to catch on with voters, due largely to the fact that she has less funding and exposure than some of her counterparts, political analysts said.

Boston University professor of mass communication John Carroll said that DeFranco's struggles can largely be attributed to the media's portrayal of her as the third most viable candidate in the race, which also includes John Devine of Woburn and John Gutta of Groveland.

"What DeFranco has to do is force her way into the conversation. Sometimes you can do that in debates, often you can do that with advertising, but somehow you have to become part of the ongoing narrative of the campaign," Carroll said. "If she can't break out of that role, if she can't get past that and into why Marisa DeFranco is a viable alternative to John Tierney, then she's really not going to be a factor in this race at all."

Her experience on women's rights issues could get her noticed though, if she's able to garner the name recognition that Moulton has developed, Carroll said.

"It's possible certainly that the issue of women's rights is going to be one that will galvanize a certain segment of the voting population," Carroll said. "It could be an issue that would work to DeFranco's advantage. Absolutely it could if she gets it circulated in an effective way."

Peter Ubertaccio, a political-science professor at Stonehill College, said that while being the only woman in the race makes DeFranco stand out, it would most likely not be a decisive factor in the primary election.

"It certainly adds an element to her campaign, but I think the dilemma is really that she's used some of her platform to criticize her own party and that's a very difficult thing to do in a party primary," Ubertaccio said. "The people who are going to turn out to vote in a party primary are folks who identify with the Democratic party, and for the most part have a favorable impression of the party. It's hard to draw people in to a party primary by criticizing your own party."

In a debate hosted by The Sun and Middlesex Community College recently, DeFranco criticized the Democratic party on issues including the Affordable Care Act and immigration policy.

Ubertaccio said that while Tierney is the most vulnerable incumbent in the Massachusetts delegation this year, incumbents still almost always have the edge, especially in a primary race.

Though Tierney has held the seat since 1997, his latest re-election bid in 2012 was a narrow victory, with his closest challenge ever as an incumbent from Republican Richard Tisei. Tierney won by just 1 percentage point, 48.3 percent to 47.3 percent, with 372,224 votes cast.

Whoever wins the Democratic primary on Sept. 9 will face Tisei, who is unopposed in the Republican party, in the general election on Nov. 4.

"Tierney is the most vulnerable in Massachusetts as a result of a very close re-election race the last time around, and the fact that he will be running against a Republican with high name recognition and the ability to attract money," Ubertaccio said.

Despite those vulnerabilities, any challenger will have a tough time unseating Tierney, Ubertaccio said.

"It's very difficult to unseat an incumbent in a primary. There's not a huge record of success either in Massachusetts or around the country. Moulton at least has the resources to compete, DeFranco does not. It's a very difficult thing to compete at that level if you can't compete dollar for dollar," he said.

The 6th Congressional District includes the Middlesex County towns of Bedford, Billerica, Burlington, North Reading, Reading, Tewksbury, Wakefield and Wilmington. The majority of the district is made up of 31 Essex County communities, among them the cities of Amesbury, Beverly, Gloucester, Lynn, Newburyport, Peabody and Salem.

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